On
December 13, 2006
at around 6:30 a.m., a 911 call came in and the man,
Michael Riley told
the
dispatcher:

"My
daughter
passed away in the night"

Police
went to the
home where Rebecca Riley had lived and found her
lifeless body, laying
on top of a clothes and a stuffed brown bear, she was
wearing only a
pink
Pull Up. Later, there would be an investigation into
why Michael Riley,
who had been court ordered to stay away, had been home
alone with
Rebecca
when police arrived. Denise
Monteiro,
from DSS filed a request, a few days later, with the
Probate And Family
Court so that a review could be done of the treatment
of the children
in
the home, by an independent medical agency:

"We
wanted
a second opinion on everything"

Denise
said that
a second opinion was asked for due to concerns
about other
children
in the home, a six year old and an 11 year old.
Rebecca had been taken
medication and in the past, there had been concerns of
her taking too
much
of the medication. The agency had learned that the
other two children
in
the home had both beendiagnosed
with
the
same problems as Rebecca and were possibly taking the
same medications.
DSS took custody of both children and placed
them in foster
homes, for their own safety.

Dr.
Kayoko Kifuji
had diagnosed five year old Rebecca with Bipolar
disorder, Attention
Deficit
and Hyperactivity Disorder. Rebecca was prescribed
Clonidine, which is
a blood pressure medication that is, at times, used
to calm aggressive
children. Also prescribed were Seroquel which is an
anti psychotic drug
and Depakote which is an anti seizure drug. Rebecca
died from an
overdose
of a mixture of these medications. Clonidine and
Depakote are not even
approved by the FDA for treatment in children, only
adults.

"After
the
child died, there was so much questioning
about medication, we decided
to seek an independent second opinion. We
hadn't received an autopsy
report
about her death, and we were concerned that
the two children could face
similar trauma"

Police
Chief Richard
Billings said that an investigation into the death
of Rebecca would
continue,
though he didn't say if charges would be brought
against Dr. Kifuji or
any of the pharmacists who had given the medications
to Rebecca.
Between
the dates of August 15 and November 27, 15 refills
for Clonidine, which
is the drug that killedRebecca,
were given
at Walgreens. Michael Polzin, the spokesman for
Walgreens said that
this
company was not under investigation:

"We
are deeply
saddened to hear about this. As far as the
medication that was taken,
we
filled a valid prescription
authorized by the patient's physician, and all
of the appropriate drug
information and directions
were given to the family"

This
is disturbing
to me. A Pharmacist SHOULD know if a drug is
appropriate for a
child
or if the FDA approves it for children or not.
Questions SHOULD
have been asked and reports to the appropriate
people SHOULD
have
been made saying that a child had been given
medication meant ONLY
for adults.

The
State Department
Of Social Services had received a report that stated
concerns about
Rebecca
taking too many drugs, the summer before she died.
The case was dropped
after Rebecca's mother and her doctor said that the
treatment was
appropriate.
A therapist had been the one to make the report and
DSS chose NOT
to do a review at that time. That review wouldn't
come until it was too
late to save Rebecca.

That
complaint would
not be the first to come in about the Riley family.
DSS had been
involved
with them since December of 2002, though not always
about medications
or
about Rebecca. Another complaint was filed in June
of 2005 when the
oldest
child in the home was taken to the hospital. Doctors
told DSS that he
was
put into thehospital
due to
a medical condition.

In
July of 2005 DSS
met with doctors, neurologist and other medical
professionals who were
treating Rebecca, her siblings and Carolyn Riley,
their mother. A
therapist
who had visited their home had told DSS that Carolyn
was sluggish and
seemed
to be drugged up. It was later revealed that Carolyn
was taking Paxil
for
depression:

"We
were assured
that the levels and the amount were within the
guidelines. We were
assured by
the mother's
doctors as well that the mother was not
receiving too much medication"

The
Therapist from
South Bay Mental Health Center told police that she
was concerned about
the type and amount of medication that had been
prescribed for Rebecca.
Oddly, Dr. Kifuji said he was also concerned, during
a phone
conversation.
Why would a man who had been the one to prescribe
the medications, then
turn around and say that he was concerned about
them?

In
October of 2005,
another complaint came in saying that Michael Riley
had grabbed one of
the children by the neck and slammed his head
against the back window
of
his truck. Carolyn agreed to file a restraining
order against him to
keep
him away from her and the children. She later
allowed the order to
lapse,
though on November 19, 2005, DSS contacted her and
she said that the
order
was current and that she had plans to move:

"We
wanted
to meet with her and the children and reassure
that things are going
good. She
assured
us that the husband would not be coming
to live with the family"

DSS
had told Michael
Riley that he was NOT to be around the
children without
supervision.
In spite of that and the supposed restraining order,
Michael moved back
in with the family only two weeks before Rebecca's
death. Rebecca's
death
brought about the arrests and charges of first
degree murder against
Michael
and Carolyn stating that they had given her a fatal
does of an
Anti hyperactivity
drug, that drug was Clonidine.

The
Medical Examiners
office ruled that Rebecca had died from
"Intoxication due to combined
affects"
of the drugs she was on:

"This
occurred
as a result of the intentional overdose of
Rebecca with clonidine. The
manner of death was determined to be homicide"

Lawmakers
planned
to hold a meeting where Psychiatrists, Physicians,
Pharmacists and
others
would discuss if children were being over-
prescribed power medications:

"The
Rebecca
Riley case represents a tremendous failure by
the state, parents,
physician,
and pharmacy, and highlights the need for
closer scrutiny of the
medications
being administered to
children"Representative
Peter J. KoutoujianCommittee
on Child Abuse and Neglect

Peter
wanted to know
why the agency was unable to save the life of
Rebecca with the history
they had with the Riley family. Peter said that her
parents, the
Psychiatrist
and the pharmacies that filled the prescriptions all
played a part in
her
death:

"You've
got
four levels that could have caught something,
and the confluence of
misses
that created
a
window for tragedy"

Peter
also said that
he wanted Pharmacists, Physicians, Psychiatrists and
other medical
specialists
to testify a a hearing that would take place that
March:

"The
role of
this committee will not be to assess blame.
We've got to know what went
wrong here, so
this travesty
is never replicated in the future"

The
mothers of Michael
and Carolyn stated that they were both innocent and
would never hurt
their
children. Valerie Berio, Carolyn's mother said that
they had known each
other since they were very young and had gotten
married in 1994.
Valerie
said that Michael was on disability and was
unemployed. She also said
that
Rebecca had been hyperactive in school, but, school
administrators had
recently described her as being "a little too
quiet". Valerie said that
the charges against Michael and Carolyn were
ludicrous:

"She
was their
treasure, their angel. They loved her more
than life itself. They
didn't
consciouslygive
her anything
to make her go to sleep and not wake up.
Michael is the sweetest kid in
the world. They would have never wanted to
hurt their daughter. I love
him like he's my own kid"

Michael's
mother,
Kathleen Riley said that Michael and Carolyn were
great parents:

"I
can't believe
this is happening. It's a terrible disgrace. I
have no idea how anyone
could say
this is
deliberate. I'm shocked. They loved their
children"

Kathleen
told about
how Carolyn had miscarried six years ago and they
had been living
separately
for about a year before Rebecca had died, though
they were both home
the
morning she had died:

"He's
been
a wonderful father. All the charges against
them are false. He cried at
night becausehe
had to
live with me for the past year. He's been
under such pressure. The poor
kid. I don't know
how he's
going to handle this. They just wanted to be
together"

In
November
of 2007, Michael Riley was in court over allegations
that he
had
tried to rape a 13 year old girl. The court ruled
that even though
Michael
had written down fantasies about sex between adults
and children, he
didn't
try to make the fantasies real.

However,
Michael,
who was 35 at that time, was found guilty of giving
explicit stories to
the 13 year old child to read. Michael was sentenced
to 2 1/2 years in
prison for that. The child is the daughter of
Carolyn, from a previous
relationship. Michael was found innocent of sexual
assault with intent
to rape a child under the age of 14 and four counts
of indecent assault
and battery on a child under the age of 14.

The
girl who had
been 13 at the time, was now 15 years old and had
accused Michael of
fondling
her during an overnight visit. The girl said that
Michael had given her
the binder with Michael's fantasy stories that was
titled "Fantasy Porn
By Michael J. Riley", he told her to read the
stories that he had
written
in the binder, about sex between
adults and
children.

Michael's
lawyer,
Julian Hernon, asked the jury to consider that there
were
inconsistencies
in the story of the 13 year old girl when she had
told about what
happened.
The girl had testified that she had heard about the
binder and the
stories
Michael had written before he had handed it to her
and claims he told
her
NOT to read them. Juliann said that she
believes the child found
the
binder and read a story in it and later used that
story as a basis for
her complaint:

?She
wasn?t
handed that open binder, she was curious, as
any adolescent would
be?

David
Traub, a spokesman
for Norfolk County District Attorney, William
Keating, had nothing but
praise for the 13 year old girl who had testified
against Michael:

?It
is important
here to recognize the courage of the victim.
She stood up there
and followed
this
through to a verdict. Without that victims
courage, we would not
have gotten
this 2 1/2-year sentence?

On
October
30, 2008,
Carolyn was ordered released from jail on her own
recognizance. She
would
have to prove to the judge that she had a place to
live before she
would
actually be released. She was released in November
of 2008 after a
judge
reduced the charges thatshe
and
Michael
would face from first degree murder to second degree
murder. Michael
was
held without bail.

In
February
of 2009
prosecutors were trying to get Carolyn back into
jail after an appeals
court reinstated that original charge of first
degree murder, claiming
there was new evidence that the death of Rebecca was
premeditated.
Assistant
District Attorney, Frank Middleton, asked the judge
to keep Carolyn in
jail without bail. Atrial
date has been
set for August 10, 2009.

A
seven page ruling
said that there was evidence that Michael had often
told Carolyn to
give
the children more medication than what was
prescribed in order to
"quiet
them down and make them pass out":

"Whenever
they
began to annoy him, he told Carolyn to shut
them up with
Clonidine, telling
her
to 'give them their pills and give them
their meds. Michael was
abusiveand
preferred
his car to the children"Judge
Joseph
Grasso Jr.

Michael's
lawyer,
Jon Darrell, said that he is going to appeal the
ruling to the state
Supreme
Court:

"I
think the
evidence was insufficient to establish
first-degree murder or any prong
of murder. My
original
request was that this should be reduced to
manslaughter,
and that's still my position"

Though
disappointed
with the ruling, Carolyn's lawyer, Michael Bourbeau
said he would not
appeal
the ruling:

"She
did not
die of a drug overdose, which would make it
not a homicide. This
is a
death by
natural causes"Michael
Bourbeau

Plymouth
District
Attorney Timothy Cruz said that prosecutors are
happy with the ruling.

In
March of
2009 a lawsuit was filed against Dr Kayoko Kifuji
saying he
should
be held responsible for the death of Rebecca and
that he had diagnosed
Rebecca too quickly, with Bipolar Disorder. The
claim also states that
he did not monitor her closely enough. Lawyers say
that Rebecca's
parents
are to blame since they gave her more than was
prescribed of the
medication.

Andrew
Meyer Jr.,
the attorney who represents the estate of Rebecca,
said that the amount
of power drugs that were prescribed by Dr Kifuji
turned her into a four
year old zombie and were responsible for her death.
The school nurse at
the Johnson Early Childhood Center had talked to Dr
Kifuji as well as
Carolyn
about how the medication was leaving Rebecca
lethargic and she wasn't
able
to participate to the full extent, in school.

Dr.
Kifuji was not
charged in the case, however, she voluntarily gave
up her medical
license
while the case is being investigated. She still says
the blame is on
the
parents who gave Rebecca too much of the medication
which had been
prescribed
to her.

During
Michael Riley's
trial Dr Kifuji was asked if she had any second
thoughts about how she
had
gone about the treatment
of Rebecca
and she said:

?No,
I have
not, based on the information I received and
on my observations of the
patient ,I
have not
changed my mind about her diagnosis and
treatment?

Dr
Kifuji denied
any wrong doing in her handling of Rebecca's case.

UPDATE:

In April of 2010,
Carolyn
was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced
to 15 years in
prison.

<>In May of 2010,
Michael
Riley, was convicted of first degree murder and
sentenced to life
without the possibility of parole.

Lawyers
for the estate
of 4-year-old Rebecca Riley announced last night
that they have settled
their medical malpractice lawsuit against the girl?s
psychiatrist, Dr.
Kayoko Kifuji of Tufts Medical Center, for $2.5
million.

Boston
lawyer Benjamin
Novotny said the settlement will be distributed to
Rebecca?s two
siblings,
now 15 and 10, with whom she had lived in Hull
before her death four
years
ago from an overdose of psychiatric drugs prescribed
by Kifuji.

Rebecca?s
parents,
Carolyn and Michael Riley, were convicted last year
in separate trials
of murdering their daughter through their reckless
dispensing of the
drugs
used for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
and bipolar illness.

Andrew
Meyer, who
works with Novotny, said the settlement did not
contain any admission
of
wrongdoing on the part of Kifuji, but he said the
doctor?s lawyers?
decision
to settle for $2.5 million, which Meyer said is the
maximum paid out by
Kifuji?s malpractice policy, suggests culpability.
He said the hospital
self-insures many of its doctors, including Kifuji.

Tufts
Medical Center,
which continues to employ Kifuji as a child
psychiatrist, said
officials
chose to settle to spare the siblings more
heartache.

?A
lengthy civil
trial would once again subject Rebecca?s siblings
and everyone who
cared
about her to the painful details brought forth
during the criminal
trials
of her parents,?? said a statement released last
night through
spokeswoman
Julie Jette.

The
psychiatrist?s
role in Rebecca?s death has been a source of intense
controversy.
Shortly
after Rebecca died in December 2006, Kifuji entered
into a voluntary
agreement
with the Board of Registration of Medicine to halt
her practice.

But
two years later,
after the grand jury declined to indict her and the
licensing board
conducted
its own initial inquiry, the board allowed her to
return to practice.
Kifuji
has been seeing patients over the past year.

Still,
many in the
medical and legal community questioned why Kifuji
was not held
criminally
accountable. When Rebecca died, Kifuji was the
psychiatrist for all
three
Riley children, diagnosing each with ADHD and
bipolar illness and
prescribing
similar mood-altering drugs.

According
to testimony
during the trials, Kifuji had been fooled by the
parents into believing
the children had serious psychiatric illnesses, in
part so the parents
could collect federal disability checks for the
youngsters? alleged
behavioral
and mental disorders. Many jurors questioned why
Kifuji, who had
indications
about the parents? dangerous conduct, did not do
more to protect the
Riley
children.

Kifuji,
who agreed
to testify only after being granted immunity from
prosecution, said in
court that she was following diagnostic criteria and
treatment
protocols
followed by many well-established child
psychiatrists. She said she had
no idea that the parents were giving extra
medication to their children.

Novotny
said the
estate chose not to go to trial because any judgment
beyond $2.5
million
would have to be recovered from the psychiatrist?s
personal assets, and
they assessed those were relatively limited.

Carolyn
Riley?s teenage
child from a previous relationship had also been
involved in the
medical
malpractice case, but the judge ruled that that
child was not entitled
to any of the settlement, Novotny said.

Novotny
also said
the final settlement included language requiring
Tufts to set up
educational
and outreach programs to help provide more mental
health services for
children.
He said he was pleased that the case is settled, but
added, ?There?s no
amount of money that can right this wrong.??

Death
occurred
in the state of Massachusetts

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child abuse
for which
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